1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a substrate for positioning optical fibers or optical waveguides when the optical fibers or optical devices having the optical waveguides therein are connected together by using a mass fusion-splicing device, and to a positioning method using the substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
An example of related art in the field of the present invention appears in Japanese Patent No.2685153. A positioning member set forth in this publication has multiple V-grooves for positioning multiple optical fibers. Also, for placing the optical fibers in predetermined V-grooves only among the V-grooves provided, a vertically movable optical fiber guide plate is attached to an end of the V-grooved member.
Slots each having three-stage different widths are formed in this optical fiber guide plate, and it is possible to select any of the widths of the slots by vertically moving the optical fiber guide plate.
By selecting the width of the slots in correspondence with the number of optical fibers, the optical fibers can be placed only in the predetermined V-grooves.
In this way the optical fibers can be positioned in predetermined positions, and resultantly enable good fusion splice.
However, with the optical waveguide positioning substrate of the related art described above, there have been the following problems. Because the optical waveguide guide plate is constructed to move up and down mechanically, it tends not to move smoothly and facilitates the accumulation of dust and the like between the V-grooved member and the optical fiber guide plate, resulting in troublesome maintenance.
While it is essential that dust in the V-grooves is cleared, particularly when optical fiber connection is carried out outdoors, the guide plate constitutes an obstruction during cleaning, and the cleaning operation is difficult.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. H.5-157928 discloses a device which is provided with a light-emitting means for emitting a guide light and an image detecting means and which, on the basis of an optical fiber image detected by the image detecting means and a light source image of the guide light, determines the relative positions of an optical fiber and a V-groove and aligns the optical fiber over the V-groove.
However, this device is complicated, since it also requires a fine adjustment motor for altering the position of the optical fiber, and as a result, its maintenance is again troublesome.
Also, since this device has only one light-emitting part in the width direction and its position is fixed, there is drawback of the unavailability of choice in application.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a substrate for positioning an optical wave guide which has a simple construction and is easy to maintain, and a positioning method using the substrate. Also, it is another object of the invention to facilitate the positioning of any of the various optical components having different numbers of optical waveguides.
To achieve these objects and other objects, the structural feature of the invention is to provide an array body having an optical component placing part, on which an optical component having optical waveguides is placed, and a plurality of light-emitting parts disposed at an end of the array body in the longitudinal direction of the optical component and aligned in the transverse direction of the optical component such that in each of the light emmiting parts the illuminating/extinguishing can be freely selected.
The light emitted when one or more of the light-emitting parts is selectively illuminated in correspondence with the number of optical waveguides can be used as an index of guidance of the optical component, and the optical component can be placed easily in a suitable position on the optical component placing part.
Preferably, cross-sectionally V-shaped aligning grooves are formed in parallel in the optical component placing part and the light-emitting parts, illuminating/extinguishing of each of which can be freely selected, are disposed at the end of the array body with one-to-one correspondence with at least one of the aligning grooves.
When this kind of construction is adopted, by selectively illuminating/extinguishing the light-emitting parts provided in correspondence with the alignment grooves in accordance with the number of optical waveguides, the positions of predetermined aligning grooves can be specified easily and the optical component can be suitably placed on those aligning grooves. That is, the operation of placing the optical component in predetermined aligning grooves with the naked eye is facilitated.
In another preferable construction, a placing groove having a flat bottom face for aligning the optical component is formed in the optical component placing part, and the light-emitting parts, the illuminating/extinguishing of each of which can be freely selected, are disposed at the end of the placing groove and are aligned in the width direction of the optical component. In this kind of construction, a plurality of suction holes for applying suction to the optical component are preferably provided in the flat bottom face. Also, preferably, the sides of the placing groove are formed with steps so that the width of the placing groove can be selected in accordance with the number of optical waveguides. In this case, the optical component can be placed easily in a desired position by selecting illuminating/extinguishing of the light-emitting parts and using the illuminated lights as a reference.
Preferably, the light-emitting parts are disposed in a line over the entire width of the optical component placing part. In this case, the substrate can be applied to optical components of sizes up to the full width of the optical component placing part.
Also, light sources are preferably provided separately from the light-emitting parts and light from the light sources is guided to the light-emitting parts by light guide members. In this case, the freedom of selection of the disposition and color of the light sources increases, and changes according to the usage state can be carried out easily.